The Flash: Season Three - TV review

The Flash: Season Three

Plot: Barry is living his dream life – his parents are alive, he’s asked Iris West on a date and he can finally be a normal guy as Central City has another speedster, Kid Flash, running around saving the city. When Barry starts forgetting parts of his old life, the Reverse Flash taunts his nemesis and tells him that there will be serious repercussions for Barry and the ones he loves if he continues to live in this alternate universe. In addition to losing his memories, his powers will also start to fade. When disaster strikes, Barry must decide if he wants to continue to live in this world as Barry Allen or return to his universe as The Flash.
Cast: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker
Number Of Episodes: 23
Channel: Sky 1 (UK)/The CW (US)
Certificate: 12 (moderate violence)
Air Date: Tuesday 4th October 2016 - Tuesday 23rd May 2017

My name is Luke Stapley and I am the most inconsistent critic in the world when it comes to posting on time. To the outside world, I am an employee at a local cinema, but not-so secretly, with the help of a computer, I review films and sometimes the occasional television show. I went against the grain and supported films like Transformers, Batman Vs. Superman and Suicide Squad, but in doing so, I opened up my blog to triggered haters, and I simply can't be bothered to stop them. I am NOT The Flash. I'm just a dude who talks about movies and TV shows.

Shut up Draco.

The Flash's first two seasons are undeniably some of the best comic booked themed TV series of episodes ever created. In just one season, the creative team introduced us to characters that we immediately fell in love with, sent us crying with laughter and then sadness in the blink of an eye and wonderfully managing to balance truly brilliantly crafted storylines alongside countless comic book Easter eggs that leave the nerdiest of fans frothing at the mouth in excitement. The finale of the first season of Flash is perfect. That should give you a rough idea of my thoughts and feelings about The Flash as a whole. This is why, with a heavy heart, I must reveal that I did not have the same elation with this third season. To tell the truth, The Flash seems to have gone down the same route as Arrow; it starts with a blistering opening two seasons and then takes a dip in its third. This isn't to say that Season Three is bad, far from it, but in comparison to its track record, this is certainly its weakest point so far. I believe this season's biggest hurdle was to correctly deal with how Season Two concluded. For those that cannot remember or just don't know, Season Two wrapped up by showing Barry, in a fit of confused and angered rage, went back in time to save his mother from murder. What this would mean for the course of Season Three, is Flashpoint. To most of you, this probably means nothing however, to those diehard comic book fans, just hearing the word "Flashpoint" immediately gives you a semi. Flashpoint is a beloved series that follows a drastically altered universe after Barry messes with time too much. For this show to tackle that storyline, I was on the precipice of anticipation. This entire twenty three episode season was surely going to be entirely dedicated to one of the most amazing comic book stories ever written. What could go wrong?? One episode. Flashpoint only lasted for a whopping forty two minutes and then we were back to normal (sort of) proceedings. To say I was underwhelmed doesn't even begin to describe my emotions. Instead of this, Barry goes back to a world where his mother and father are still dead, Joe and Iris are no longer speaking to each other, Cisco has become a recluse after the death of his brother and the voice of Jigsaw is now giving the metahumans of the Flashpoint universe their respective powers in the real world. Yet again Barry, you've gone and messed everything up.

Two Flashes?? It's ok. We can tell them apart because of the lighter shade of red.

I probably should prefix this review now before any of you get the wrong idea. This will be a positive review. Come the second half, I'm going to be singing this season's praises however, before I get to the good, I need to get this rant well out of the way. Ok. So, after that small intermission, WHY IS BARRY SUCH A STUPID MORON? Everyone makes mistakes and it's good to see the writer's aren't making Barry a clear cut hero who always does the right thing but there comes a point, with his character, where you have to question if he learns anything. He has all of these powers and you'd think, that after three years of responsibility and practice, he'd have learnt to NOT F*@K WITH TIME TRAVEL. By doing this, it means the season separates itself in two. To begin with; we deal with the repercussions of Barry's silly mistakes, follow the fight against Doctor Alchemy and come face to face with the season's big bad, Savitar, the God of Speed. The second half focuses on Barry and Team Flash doing all that they can to stop a specific event from happening in the future after Barry witnessed it occur through an accidental trip into the future. So, for the third time in a row, the villain is yet another speedster. How original? Crucially though, everything could be redeemed by making Savitar a fantastic villain and proving himself to be a considerable threat for The Flash. Savitar does a bit of both in regards to positivity and negativity. He is a formidable villain in a physical and mental manner. Regrettably, it's the mystery surrounding Savitar, his overall plan, the methods of achieving said plan and his eventual reveal are all unbelievably dull, uninteresting and predictable. Savitar may have looked cool and posed a decent threat but the more you begin to nitpick his plan, the more he falls apart as a memorable villain. That's it though. Rant over. Negative points all covered. I promise the rest of this review will all be glowing with praise. Well, until I get to the musical episode. Actually, best we don't speak about that. Yikes!

A visual representation of how the first half of this season turned out.

FACT: Frankie Kane/Magenta is played by Joey King who also played another DC character in the movie The Dark Knight Rises, a young Talia Al Ghul.

With all of the bad out of the way, it pleases me to say that I loved the rest of the season. Minus those flaws, the third season operated like a regular season of The Flash should; with the utmost fun and wonderment. As always, the top of the good list are the performances from both our regular and supporting roles. Despite having a incredibly wobbly written character, Grant Gustin is the perfect actor to be playing Barry Allen and proves himself, for another consecutive year, to be one of the most underrated leading men on television. It is jaw-dropping how this guy hasn't been snapped up to be in any big blockbusters yet. Gustin can reach various levels in his role. His awkward banter with newcomer, Julian (played wonderfully by Harry Potter alumni, Tom Felton) is hilarious, his devotion to Iris West is adorable making them one of the only superhero relationships I care about and his personality of The Flash is joyously reminiscent of Christopher Reeve's classic Superman. He manages to overcome the shoddy writing of Barry to maximum effect. Carlos Valdes as Cisco continues to be the epitome of what I aspire to be. He is as witty as he is dedicated to his friends. Cisco's relationship with Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker, who faces her toughest season to date) continues to be the strongest bond within Team Flash and this season definitely puts some strain on their friendship through quite a few unexpected challenges. I even like the fact that Cisco now has a female counterpart in the form of Gypsy. Their bond isn't featured a great deal but it does sprinkle some anticipatory seeds for things to come.

Being A Badass 101: Strike a strong pose and look up at your foe, slowly.

The West's have always been a strong staple in The Flash and this season was no different as Iris, Wally and Joe are continuously at the forefront just a tad behind Barry. Iris is key to the second half of the season where the entire crux revolves around her and her future. Candice Patton does a great job in the role and she shares great chemistry with Grant Gustin and Keiynan Lonsdale makes for a more than suitable partner for The Flash as he morphs into Kid Flash this season however, as is the norm with every season of The Flash so far, it is Jesse L. Martin who not only is the best actor in this show, but any of the CW shows as a whole. Using his theatrical background to fuel his performance as Joe West, I am in awe every time Joe is given a emotional beat to play. The only wobbly thought going through my mind, in regards to performances, was Tom Cavanagh. Having played the evil mastermind in Season One, then the good incarnation of his doppelganger in Season Two, Cavanagh now plays a goofy interpretation of Harrison Wells in Season Three. To begin with, I found him irritating, useless and a waste of Cavanagh's talent. He kept fiddling with his bloody drumsticks and providing zero help to Team Flash apart from constantly supplying them with an obscene amount of coffee. It only became apparent what the writers had planned for this version of Wells right up until the finale to which, I now see their overall plan for the character and to them I say, bravo. It is very clever writing and something you wouldn't expect from a mainstream superhero TV show. The Flash is also one of the most expensive looking shows on television. Not only are the effects for The Flash zipping here, there and everywhere impressive, but when Killer Frost reappears and the look of Savitar transfers from visually created to a practical suit, it becomes clear that it has all been money well spent. The action is consistently of a high quality with some standouts being a Barry vs. Grodd (a psychic gorilla. Yeah, you read that right) and a four part crossover with the other CW shows (Arrow, Supergirl and Legends Of Tomorrow) of which The Flash's episode was the strongest. As for how the show leaves us as we await Season Four in the coming months, it undeniably is an open ended conclusion however, it is by no means as powerful as the previous seasons.

The new Etch-A-Sketch design looks a tad too extreme.

As debilitating as some of this season's flaws may be (a lacklustre villain, failing to live up to the promise of Flashpoint and stupid, STUPID Barry), The Flash redeems itself with fantastic performances from all of the cast and a worthwhile conclusion. Top notch action mixed with witty humour and a nice sense of levity when needed is why The Flash was so successful in the first place and the third season is no different.

My Verdict: 8/10

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